Arch-conservative televangelist Pat Robertson appears to have had a change of heart about gun control after last week’s mass shooting at a Florida high school left 17 people dead.
“I’ve got no opposition whatsoever to shooting, but for heaven’s sakes, I don’t think that the general population needs to have automatic weapons,” Robertson said on “The 700 Club” on Tuesday.
“Amen,” an off-camera voice answered.
Robertson, who suffered a stroke earlier this month, asked for a ban on “bump stocks,” which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire as rapidly as machine guns. Weapons with bump stocks were used last year by Stephen Paddock during the Las Vegas shooting, which left 58 people dead and hundreds injured.
Robertson also called for more thorough background checks, including a medical check.
“If somebody is seeing a psychiatrist, is on medication, he or she needs to be prohibited from being turned loose on the general population,” he said. “It’s just got to be, y’know, sensible.”
A gun owner and a hunter, Robertson hasn’t exactly been a voice of moderation in the gun control debate. In 2014, he encouraged churches to arm worshippers.
“Blessed are the fully armed,” he said then.